‘In the past decade, the indications

‘In the past decade, the indications have been that wizardkind is living through nothing more than a brief calm between two wars. Mars, bringer of battle, shines brightly above us, suggesting that the fight must soon break out

again. How soon, centaurs may attempt to divine by the burning of certain herbs and leaves, by the observation of fume and flame ...’

It was the most unusual lesson Harry had ever attended. They did indeed burn sage and mallowsweet there on the classroom floor, and Firenze told them to look for certain shapes and symbols in the pungent fumes, but he

seemed perfectly unconcerned that not one of them could see any of the signs he described, telling them that humans were hardly ever good at this, that it took centaurs years and years to become competent, and finished

by telling them that it was foolish to put too much faith in such things, anyway, because even centaurs sometimes read them wrongly. He was nothing like any human teacher Harry had ever had. His priority did not seem to be

to teach them what he knew, but rather to impress upon them that nothing, not even centaurs’ knowledge, was foolproof.

‘He's not very definite on anything, is he?’ said Ron in a low voice, as they put out their mallowsweet fire. ‘I mean, I could do with a few more details about this war we're about to have, couldn't you?’

The bell rang right outside the classroom door and everyone jumped; Harry had completely forgotten they were still inside the castle, and quite convinced that he was really in the Forest. The class filed out, looking slightly

perplexed.

Harry and Ron were on the point of following them when Firenze called, ‘Harry Potter, a word, please.’

Harry turned. The centaur advanced a little towards him. Ron hesitated.

‘You may stay,’ Firenze told him. ‘But close the door, please.’

Ron hastened to obey.

‘Harry Potter, you are a friend of Hagrid's, are you not?’ said the centaur.

‘Yes,’ said Harry.

‘Then give him a warning from me. His attempt is not working. He would do better to abandon it.’

‘His attempt is not working?’ Harry repeated blankly.

‘And he would do better to abandon it,’ said Firenze, nodding. ‘I would warn Hagrid myself, but I am banished—it would be unwise for me to go too near the Forest now— Hagrid has troubles enough, without a centaurs’ battle.’

‘But—what's Hagrid attempting to do?’ said Harry nervously.

Firenze surveyed Harry impassively.

‘Hagrid has recently rendered me a great service,’ said Firenze, ‘and he has long since earned my respect for the care he shows all living creatures. I shall not betray his secret. But he must be brought to his senses. The

attempt is not working. Tell him, Harry Potter. Good-day to you.’

The happiness Harry had felt in the aftermath of The Quibbler interview had long since evaporated. As a dull March blurred into a squally April, his life seemed to have become one long series of worries and problems again.

Umbridge had continued attending all Care of Magical Creatures lessons, so it had been very difficult to deliver Firenze's warning to Hagrid. At last, Harry had managed it by pretending he'd lost his copy of Fantastic Beasts

and Where to Find Them, and doubling back after class one day. When he'd repeated Firenze's words, Hagrid gazed at him for a moment through his puffy, blackened eyes, apparently taken aback. Then he seemed to pull

himself together.

‘Nice bloke, Firenze,’ he said gruffly ‘but he don’ know what he's talkin’ abou’ on this. The attemp's comin’ on fine.’

‘Hagrid, what're you up to?’ asked Harry seriously. ‘Because you've got to be careful, Umbridge has already sacked Trelawney and, if you ask me, she's on a roll. If you're doing anything you shouldn't be, you'll be—’

‘There's things more importan’ than keepin’ a job,’ said Hagrid. though his hands shook slightly as he said this and a basin full of Knarl droppings crashed to the floor. ‘Don’ worry abou’ me, Harry, jus’ get along now, there's a

good lad.’

Harry had no choice but to leave Hagrid mopping up the dung all over his floor, but he felt thoroughly dispirited as he trudged back up to the castle.

Meanwhile, as the teachers and Hermione persisted in reminding them, the OWLs were drawing ever nearer. All the fifth-years were suffering from stress to some degree, but Hannah Abbott became the first to receive a

Calming Draught from Madam Pomfrey after she burst into tears during Herbology and sobbed that she was too stupid to take exams and wanted to leave school now.

If it had not been for the DA lessons, Harry thought he would have been extremely unhappy. He sometimes felt he was living for the hours he spent in the Room of Requirement, working hard but thoroughly enjoying himself at

the same time, swelling with pride as he looked around at his fellow DA members and saw how far they had come. Indeed, Harry sometimes wondered how Umbridge was going to react when all the members of the DA

received ‘Outstanding’ in their Defence Against the Dark Arts OWLs.

They had finally started work on Patronuses, which everybody had been very keen to practise, though, as Harry kept reminding them, producing a Patronus in the middle of a brightly lit classroom when they were not under

threat was very different from producing it when confronted by something like a Dementor.

‘Oh, don't be such a killjoy,’ said Cho brightly, watching her silvery swan-shaped Patronus soar around the Room of Requirement during their last lesson before Easter. They're so pretty!’

‘They're not supposed to be pretty, they're supposed to protect you,’ said Harry patiently. ‘What we really need is a boggart or something; that's how I learned, I had to conjure a Patronus while the boggart was pretending to

be a Dementor—’

‘But that would be really scary!’ said Lavender, who was shooting puffs of silver vapour out of the end of her wand. ‘And I still—can't—do it!’ she added angrily.

Neville was having trouble, too. His face was screwed up in concentration, but only feeble wisps of silver smoke issued from his wand tip.

‘You've got to think of something happy,’ Harry reminded him.

‘I'm trying,’ said Neville miserably, who was trying so hard his round face was actually shining with sweat.

‘Harry, I think I'm doing it!’ yelled Seamus, who had been brought along to his first ever DA meeting by Dean. ‘Look—ah—it's gone ... but it was definitely something hairy, Harry!’

Hermione's Patronus, a shining silver otter, was gambolling around her.

‘They are sort of nice, aren't they?’ she said, looking at it fondly.

The door of the Room of Requirement opened, and closed. Harry looked round to see who had entered, but there did not seem to be anybody there. It was a few moments before he realised that the people close to the door

had fallen silent. Next thing he knew, something was tugging at his robes somewhere near the knee. He looked down and saw, to his very great astonishment, Dobby the house-elf peering up at him from beneath his usual

eight woolly hats.